Boxing Kangaroos

They don't wear gloves, but kangaroos really do box. It's a male thing (... oh those boys), and it's purpose is essentially to figure out who gets all the girls (...like most male things).

So this has been one of the things on my "To see" list, and thought I might need to track a mob of kangaroos during breeding season, or something. But no - the other day I was biking home from work and saw a group of roos near the bike path... and then I realized that 2 of them were BOXING!! I stopped and watched until it got too dark (which unfortunately is way too early, now), and I realized there were actually a few different groups of boxers. I think in this case it was a bunch of young blokes warming up their muscles for spring - the fights didn't look as lethal as the real ones sound. So there are a few great things about roo boxing:
1) The Lazy-boy maneuver: while boxing, the roos will actually sit back on their tail - yes, put their full body weight on their tail - so they can kick their opponent with both legs. OK, it's not quite the same as kicking back in a lazy-boy, but I love this move!
2) The Simpson Strangle-hold: I actually don't think they're strangling each other, but when they go at each other, they throw back their heads (which look really small) and their heads roll around a bit, and it looks a lot like when Homer strangles Bart.

While I would love to take credit for this photo, it's not mine (I didn't have my camera) - I stole it off Flickr from a person with the username "aaardvaark." If you click on the title of this entry, it should take you to his Flickr page, where he has some more great boxing-roo photos. Thank you Mr. A!